A complex tangle of laws ties communities up in knots while delivering endless loopholes for developers. More and more decision-making is being removed from local councils and delivered instead to state government ministers and bureaucrats who’s only interest is the dollar value of the development. The end result is unplanned, disconnected development with poor transport, high energy demands and crippling prices.

Terry (Kiama) and Amanda (South Coast) strongly support local opportunities for long-term work and their plan is to build rewarding sustainable jobs in the South Coast and Kiama.

This is the first time the GREENS have developed a Jobs Plan specifically for our region. The plan includes a comprehensive range of strategies that are targeted at both protecting existing jobs as well as creating new ones.

Greens Kiama candidate Terry Barratt and Senator Lee Rhiannon have welcomed the Australian Senate motion, passed yesterday, that calls on the government to support the Shoalhaven community and responds to the announced closure of the Australian Paper mill.

Australian Greens Senator for NSW Lee Rhiannon said: “The Shoalhaven paper mill has been very important to the local economy. Its closure will lead to 75 job losses.

The Greens today announced revenue measures that would fund the repayment of $20 billion of investment in new public transport, schools, hospitals, housing and other social infrastructure, without privatisation or running up unsustainable debt.

Greens plan for paying for infrastructure without privatisation or unsustainable debt.

The Baird government is poised to scrap nature conservation laws that currently protect some of the Illawarra region’s most important natural areas, including Seven Mile Beach, Saddleback Mountain rainforests and the Illawarra Escarpment, according to the Gerroa Environmental Protection Society.

Social housing consultation ignores the evidence for genuine solutions

Terry Barratt, Greens candidate for the seat of Kiama, has called on the community, particularly tenants in social housing and those almost three and a half thousand applicants on the Illawarra Shoalhaven District housing waiting list, to tell the State Government to get serious about delivering affordable and social housing solutions. His comments follow the Government’s recent consultation session on Social Housing held at the Bomaderry Bowling Club.

Figures released today by the Greens NSW show that Labor and the Coalition are prepared to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars of TAFE money to private for-profit training corporations.
Greens NSW MP John Kaye is today in the Shoalhaven region with the party’s local candidate for the state electorate of Kiama, Terry Barratt, to raise the alarm on Liberal, National and Labor policies that allow private-for-profit corporations to receive government subsidies to replace TAFE.